The Economic Impact of Hurricanes in History: Evidence from Sugar Exports in the Caribbean from 1700 to 1960

Abstract

his study estimates the economic impact of hurricane strikes in the Caribbean from 1700 to 1960. More precisely, historical accounts of hurricane strikes and actual historical hurricane tracks, in conjunction with sugar export data taken from the colonial blue books and other historical sources, were used to create a cross-colony/country and time dataset that allows for the first time the ability to evaluate the susceptibility of local sugar production to hurricanes. The regression results show that these events had generally large statistically and economically significant impacts.